Coffee.

C-O-F-F-E-Freakin-E.

Your everyday New Yorker needed it, well, every day. Often the Evilest of Villains needed it. Even real life super heroes needed it.

This alone was enough to explain why the Masochist, in full regalia, was standing in line at a Coffee Shop. Were there gawkers? Sure. He was always a bit of a strange picture, dressed in spandex, decked out in X-Symbols, looking beat to hell on one side and relatively untouched on the other. Above that, though, people didn't often stop to think and extraordinary people took time out of their day to do normal things, like grab a up of joe.

It was his turn.

"Oh, wow, Hey...How can I help you?"

He couldn't blame the barista for asking questions, he was bleeding from his forehead a bit. He acted oblivious, eyeing the menu behind the coffeemaker's head for a bit.

"Eh... Shot in the dark."

Black Coffee with added espresso shots. Dangerously caffeinated, but it had been a long night. He needed it.

"Yeah... You okay?"

The Masochist grinned and wiped away some drying blood, pulling out his wallet to pay.

"You should see the other guy."

Before too long he settled in with his cup, lounging in a chair and taking a deep breath... He wondered what Elke was up to... Damn punk. Better not be getting into trouble. You know, Like him.

Man, it really was funny how all of this stuff just started to become a stale routine... He wondered if it wasn't about time to mix things up. He shook his head, betraying an inner monologue as he turned to stare blankly out the coffee shop window.

Maybe he could sell Elke to slavery or something.

Coffee was... Alright, Bailey supposed. There were certainly better things out there, like energy drinks or chocolate milk, but coffee was good in times where sleep was unavailable.

And at that moment, sleep was something that Bailey desperately needed.

As it turned out, staying up all night gaming before a shift was not a good idea. Not in the slightest. Large bags rimmed the young teen's eyes, and he could feel the effects of the lack of sleep in every movement. He moved at half of an already slower than normal pace.

The shift had been terrible. He failed to hear many of the orders, the customers gave him, had been reprimanded by his boss, and had even dropped an ice cream cone on the floor. As soon as he had finished, he had slumped his way to the coffee shop and planted his butt firmly in the chair, hoping to wake up enough to get home without any mishaps. 

He sat in a large chair by the window, drinking a heavily caffeinated cup of some frilly type of coffee. He yawned, forgetting to cover his mouth, and blinked water from the corners of his eyes. He took a sip of coffee to squelch any the yawn, which he knew would quickly become a train of 'silent screams for caffeine', as his mother always called them.

He was definitely going to bed at a reasonable hour that night. Maybe something like two or three am.

As he blinked, someone sat down in the chair next to him. It wasn't just someone, though. It was an X-man. A real live superhero. He recognized him from photos online, but couldn't place his name or his powers.

One side of the man's spandex suit was beaten and battered, and just generally looked like it had been sent through a blender, while the other side looked almost untouched. Weird way to fight. It likely took a lot of pivoting, Bailey figured.

"So you're, like, a real super hero, huh?" Bailey sort-of-asked-but-really-commented. He felt more and more awake by the second. The string of yawns had even ceased. "That's really cool. Did you just come from stopping a fight or something?"

His eyes lost focus for a moment as he stared into the street, but he came so a sort of attention when a passing car hit a pot hole. That wasn't odd, mind you, what was odd was that he didn't feel it.

He looked up from his sort of trance, and glanced around... Huh... He couldn't feel anything, actually. Something wrong with him? Maybe he was just tired... He lifted his left hand and looked down at it just in time for some kid to speak out.

" blah blah something something Super hero, huh?" His head panned over. Jees, he hadn't even noticed there was someone next to him! The grizzled vet of many confrontations set his hand on the arm of the chair, and used the other to rub his forehead.

"That's really cool. Did you just come from stopping a fight or something?"

Did you just come from being a nosy little sh- His own voice interrupted his thoughts. "Something like that... One of them bots freaked out and some kid overreacted. Settled it down before it escalated too much." Was he not suppose to talk about that stuff? He didn't really pay attention during the briefings, and to be honest, he could count the craps he gave on no hands.

"Why, you writing a book report or something?"

He grumbled as he reached out to grab his coffee, pausing as he felt a tingle in his finger tips. He held still for a moment, and then grabbed the cup, bringing it in to take a sip. The kid looked like he'd gotten about as much sleep as his fellow conversater. Didn't look suspicious at all, though... The reality of being in his job title meant that random strangers striking conversations were sometimes psychopaths who fancied themselves super villain.

He didn't get that impression from this kid, though. Build wasn't that of a fighter... Not one with any milage, anyway. Still, he always kept those kinda thoughts on his mind... Especially after the wedding.

The coffee was already starting to kick in, and the lack of a sixth sense was starting to get a little concerning... He wasn't without his own hypothesis, though... He knew this feeling. Felt like being normal. Sucked.

His eyes started scanning the room for a certain lady.

Bailey followed the man's line of vision out the window, where, sitting in plain view, was a car that had hit a pole straight on. Weird. People really needed to learn how to drive. He turned back around and went back to ignoring it, sure that there were people that could handle the situation.

He took another sip of coffee. It was still so incredibly bitter, even with three sugars. How did people tolerate the stuff?

"Bots..." Bailey trailed off as he thought. "Oh, like a META bot? Yeah, I've heard of them malfunctioning. There's all kinds of theories online about what causes it. Personally, I think someone's playing with them. Targeting mutants and stuff to cause trouble. 'Course that usually gets me some pretty weird stares, or internet comments, rather. Probably just a dumb conspiracy theory."

>>"Why, you writing a book report or something?"

"Uh, no," Bailey shook his head and gave the stranger a weird stare. "Book reports involve books, you know. Do you see many books being written about super heroes sitting in coffee shops? I don't typically." Weird thing to say. Well, maybe his observational skills just needed a bit of work.

The stranger wasn't really the friendly type. That much was obvious as he kept staring around the coffee shop like he was looking for someone. Bailey didn't particularly mind, though. The conversation was starting to wake him up, and he liked talking to people. 

"Anyway, I'm Bailey," he introduced himself and stuck out a hand for the man to shake. "You have a name? I guess that's a bit of a dumb question. Should have asked what's your name. Unless you really don't have a name and I've just made you super uncomfortable. Sorry if that's the case."

"Bots...Oh, like a META bot? Yeah, I've heard of them malfunctioning. There's all kinds of theories online about what causes it. Personally, I think someone's playing with them. Targeting mutants and stuff to cause trouble. 'Course that usually gets me some pretty weird stares, or internet comments, rather. Probably just a dumb conspiracy theory."

Oh boy... Saphirus took a long sip of his coffee as the kid prattled on. Must be a riot at parties.

"Eh, More like they're trying to make some software replace good grunt work. Waste of time if you ask me."

He spoke somewhat dismissively as he finished scanning the room... No Gemma... Not that other girl, either. Another one of them?

The kid went on to talk about book reports, an Saph just eyed him with a tired, slightly irritated expression. "Yeah. My bad." He'd never had someone reply to a petty quip so literally. It was too early for this @$#^...

Bailey introduced himself. A hand was put out. Saph looked down at the hand for a moment, and then back up, taking a second to grasp it lazily, and give it a shake before grabbing his coffee again. "I'm positively triggered. They call me The Masochist, Kid... Hey, This'll be a strange question, but anyone ever tell you you talk a lot?"

He took a solid gulp of the cooling coffee, and then leaned back, placing his hands behind his head. "little out of left field, I know." Yup. Saph was being a bit of a @#^%, but in his defense, hero or not, he was just a guy who desperately needed this coffee to hit full force.

Unbeknownst to the grumpy X-Man, a knight with a rather large dent in it's head was marching down the street toward the coffee shop. It stopped to scan the area and then affirmed the location of it's target, marching on steadily.

He reached out to the side again, and his fingers tingled as if he were reaching out of a bubble. Whoever was doing this was near... and to his other side... The boy, maybe?

Nah.

"Masochist... That's an odd thing to call yourself," Bailey quirked his head at the man. "You know what it means, right? Or maybe that was on purpose. You must have some pretty messed up powers, dude."

He shuddered to think of what they might entail. He was sort of glad that he probably wouldn't get the chance to see whatever they were. If they had anything to do with the name 'Masochist', he really, really didn't want to see them in action. He was almost a little surprised that the X-men would let someone like that on their team.

"Oh yeah, I know," he nodded to the 'talking a lot' comment. "People tell me all the time. It's part of who I am, though. Sometimes I think better out loud, and it just helps me to talk to other people. May not help them, but I can't control that!"

Bailey forced himself to down the rest of the bitter coffee in one gulp as he watched the surly man stick his fingers out in the other direction. "Kinda weird, what you're doing, you know. Might get you some stares. That and the whole get-up you got going on." He was usually quite a bit more optimistic than he was in that moment, but Masochist wasn't really making the conversation very easy. When there was a bit more on the other end, it was easier to keep conversations lighter.

The little bell on the door sounded through the coffee shop, alerting the workers that someone, or rather something, had just entered. 

"Hey, isn't that one of those META bot things?" Bailey pointed to the large knight with a nice dent on it's head that had just entered. "Looks like it's seen better days."

"Masochist... That's an odd thing to call yourself. You know what it means, right? Or maybe that was on purpose. You must have some pretty messed up powers, dude."

"Nope, just picked a word that sounded good. Kinda wondering what it means if you can tell me."

The coffee must have been kicking in, because that came out quick. Part of him relished in being a smart ass, the rest was afraid to hear the lengthy explanation he was about to hear about taking pleasure from pain. Still, he had to admit this distressing conversation was the most he'd willingly talked to someone in some time. Sorta made him feel... Refreshed, maybe?

"Oh yeah, I know, people tell me all the time. It's part of who I am, though. Sometimes I think better out loud, and it just helps me to talk to other people. May not help them, but I can't control that! Kinda weird, what you're doing, you know. Might get you some stares. That and the whole get-up you got going on."

"Look, kid, Bailey, right? I feel like being on the level with you. When people tell you that, it ain't cause they are just trying t- Never mind... If I don't give a crap what people think, why do I gotta ask you to, right? Way I figure, someone looks at me and thinks I'm weird, #%&@ em. Not like I got plans for any job interviews, not on the look out for a girl to take home. I got exactly zero people here to impress. People think cause I'm wearing this get up I'm gonna be a perfect model citizen or some s#%^. Big news is that real life super heroes ain't like that. We get the job done. S'all that matters." Great, the kid got him rambling on too. Maybe he was one of those kinda people that just made you talk more than you should.

He downed the rest of his drink.

And moved to stand. "It's been real. Seriously, best conversation I had all d-"

But Bailey wasn't paying attention.

"Scan confirmed, suspect identified. Designated Deputy, Saphirus, remain still. You stand suspected of Assaulting an automated officer of the Law. Please do not resist as I detain you."

Saph spun around and visibly made an exasperated motion.

"Oh for f- Unit 16247B where is your accompanying officer? Piece of junk. I hit you so you would stop trying to grab that girl."

"Do not r-resist. You and your accomplice will be d-detained."

"Uh... Accomplice?"
Saph looked around for a moment, clearly confused.

"Accomplice. It appears you have sealed some sort of deal with the second suspect, as identified by shaking hands. This act has b-been recorded. He will need to be detained as well." The META turned and quickly scanned the boy. "Abnormal DNA detected, Mutant identified"

The older mutant froze in place for a moment, and then reached back to scratch the back of his head. "Alright, I see what's goin on. I knew I shoulda reported you damaged... Anyway, what's that override code a-"

"Comply immediately, or I will use force."

"Now hold on. Kid, don't worry about this. Think it got some stuff crossed up. It's supposed to be able to capture evidence and make arrests based on that input, but that's only for drug related cases... This one just got away from it's officer babysitter after I wacked it on the noggin is all. I just gotta remember that c-"Thump!

Next thing Saphirus new he was sliding across the floor. The bot had lashed out with surprising force, and sans his abilities, landed a solid open palmed blow to his chest.

It turned to Bailey next. "D-do not resist."

"You seriously don't know?" Bailey gave the man a bewildered look. "Just spend a little bit of time on google before you pick a name, man! Seriously, it's, like, one click. Anyway, it means someone who takes pleasure from pain. And not always just 'ha ha, that's funny' pleasure, either. Pretty nasty stuff."

He shook his head as he thought about it some more, attempting to focus on something, anything else.

"So what are your powers, then? They do anything cool? If it's something to do with your name, I don't want to hear, though. Like, at all."

Man, could the guy ever ramble. He needed to learn when to stop talking. Best to just be nice, though. He did seem like a nice enough guy, after all, and Bailey was big on common courtesy. "Hmm, yeah, that's pretty cool, I guess. Do you enjoy what you do, or is it just kind of a 'it pays the bills' type deal?"

Bailey sat in utter silence when the META bot approached them. It was probably the least amount of talking he had done all day. Great, of all the people he had to sit and talk to, he picked the one guy who had just pissed off an automated cop. At least he seemed to have it handled.

Well... He did until he was slammed in the chest by the bot.

Nope.

Nope, nope, nope.

Bailey was not built for fighting. He was not made to take on an angry META bot or be some X-man's accomplice. "I'm just going to go over there..." He said slowly and hurled himself over a leather arm chair. "I'm pretty sure you have me mistaken for someone else."

"Comply immediately, or I will use force," the bot repeated, this time at Bailey.

"No thank you," he said quietly from his hiding place behind a small couch. His head was still peeking out, but at least all his internal organs were hidden behind the couch. The X-guy probably had things handled. After all, he was out of Bailey's range now.

From his position away from the bot, he had a perfect view of the glass display case. The muffins looked really, really good. His stomach rumbled and he regretted not buying one before.

"You seriously don't know? Just spend a little bit of time on google before you pick a name, man! Seriously, it's, like, one click. Anyway, it means someone who takes pleasure from pain. And not always just 'ha ha, that's funny' pleasure, either. Pretty nasty stuff.So what are your powers, then? They do anything cool? If it's something to do with your name, I don't want to hear, though. Like, at all."

"I make paint dry faster." He spoke wryly; the business with the META stepped in the way of him answering the question about occupation enjoyment.

Which brought him to the present; smacking into the wall, and arching his back in pain and shock. "Hooo F#$%...." They weren't supposed to hit that hard, were they? SOP was to grab a wrist and begin securing the suspect with handcuffs. It was sort of impressive how well they could do this while the suspect struggled and struck them. Full on strikes to the chest? Pretty much off limits. His hand went to the right side of his chest, an area not used to the soreness of blunt impact, due to his powers. It was tender, but nothing appeared broken. He didn't have time to dwell on that; a perfectly innocent, albeit somewhat oblivious, teen was about to be attacked.

16247B identified the obstacle in the way of it's new target, and decided the best way forward was to remove the obstacle. With one hand it grabbed the corner of the small couch, and tossed it to the side, where it smacked into that lovely display case.

By now, Saphirus was already hitting himself as hard as he could in the leg with his crowbar, removed from its holster.

That familiar tingle in his finger tips told him he was getting somewhere when it came to energy collection. It worked its way up his hand and to his wrist; by then he was ready. The mechanized officer reached out for it's prey.

From the other end of the room a blur shot across, curved around a person running for cover, and took the reaching arm off at the elbow before swooping up and into a nearby wall. Saphirus grinned, lowering the pointed finger that steered the crowbar's flight.

The officer looked down at it's missing appendage, over at the object, and then finally at the mutant who threw it.

"critical damage. Authorizing use of cavalry units. ETA 2 minutes."

Saph's grin faded quickly. "@%^@" He stumbled forward as the robot reached out toward Bailey again with the other arm. Saph got there first, lifting his right leg to boot the machine off balance. "C'mon, kid. It's not safe here." He took note of his powers deactivating again as he neared, making his hobble suddenly fade away. A few steps later he had his crowbar in hand again. The robo officer was climbing to its feet as he reached for the kids hand in attempt to high-tail it out of there.

Providing the kid allowed him to grab him, they would be aiming for the nearest alleyway under the cover of everyone else who was fleeing from the accosted coffee shop.

"Hey! I was using that!" Bailey shouted as he covered his head instinctively. That couch was supposed to be his protection. The bot was not supposed to just pick it up and throw it away like a tissue. The love seat landed with a crash on the wonderfully set up display case. The display case that someone had likely put a lot of work into.

The teen scrambled backwards as the bot reached out towards him. He felt rather like a mouse in a cage with no exits, waiting for the hand to drag him away. But hey, at least he wasn't actually a mouse, he figured. He was a person with a conscience and free will... Which was not what he needed to focus on as death loomed closer than it ever had.

He closed his eyes and covered his face with his arms, despite the knowledge that there wasn't anything he could do. Just as he was expecting to feel the cold metal of the bot, there was a loud noise and a sudden pain in his foot.

Bailey warily opened his eyes to see the META's mechanical forearm lying on his foot. Not far off, a crowbar lay on the ground, clearly the weapon used to cause the damage. He looked over to the X-guy to see what happened, and realized that he had been the one to throw the crowbar. He clearly had some kind of increased strength or something, which was at least better than what he had been thinking earlier.

"Critical damage. Authorizing use of cavalry units. ETA 2 minutes."

Bailey stared at the bot. There were more coming, apparently. Well that was just peachy. Maybe they weren't all that bad?

"Oh, no, it's totally safe here. There's just a couple of crazy robots standing around, but once you get past them, this place is like Disney land!" He allowed the man to grab him and felt himself hoisted to his feet, the pair of them clearly aiming for anywhere but the coffee shop.

He just hoped that wherever they were going had a bit more food and a few less homicidal machines.

"Oh, no, it's totally safe here. There's just a couple of crazy robots standing around, but once you get past them, this place is like Disney land!"

"Dammit kid now ain't the time to be facetious!" He growled as he pulled them out, around the corner, and into the nearest alleyway. No food to be found here, sadly. He took a moment to recollected his thoughts and catch his breath.

"You one of them, then? Gonna need you to step away a bit, but you can't go too far; not until I get this sorted. It's going to report to the other bots on you, and they won't know that it's malfunctioning..."

He let the kid go, and then looked at his crowbar... a bit chipped. Jees, those things were strong. That throw would have wrecked a car. He started hitting himself just in case as the damaged officer rounded the corner.

"Uhm... What's that damned override... Uhhh... C2...AB.... Um... F@@% Why didn't they make it easier? Jesus. Kid, call the cops will you!?"

The one armed officer swung at him, and he caught the fist in his left hand effortlessly.

"Tell em badge number 16247b is malfunctioning and assaulting a police officer!"

Bailey frowned and stepped back a few feet, thinking that the man had figured out what his abilities did. "One of what? A mutant? I thought that much was implied! And you know, it's kind of rude to identify someone as 'one of them'." His optimism was waning with this guy.

"These are the cops, man!" Bailey stuck out his hands at the crazed robot rounded the corner. He shook his head but took out his phone anyway. It wasn't like it could do any harm, even if it didn't do any good.

He looked up from it to see the X-man catch a punch in his hand. Now that was cool. Okay, maybe he wasn't so entirely completely awful.

"Hi, hello. Yeah, I need some cops over here. Where am I? I dunno, somewhere in Manhattan for sure. In an alleyway. 8th, maybe? What's my crisis? Oh there's one of those META bot things going all batty over here. Yeah, just straight up started attacking people. Uhhhh.... 16247b. And it's... Assaulting a cop, right? You're a cop? Wait, I thought you were an X-man?"

"One of what? A mutant? I thought that much was implied! And you know, it's kind of rude to identify someone as 'one of them'."

Saphirus shook his head abruptly. "Hate to break it to you, kid, but you ain't like me. You're something else entirely. Least that's what the eggheads say. Not to say that's a bad thing. don't really care."

He ignored the first cop quip as the bot rounded the corner, and the fight began in earnest. He'd caught the first blow, but the bot swung in with a low kick that Saph had to move a knee to block, which left him on strange footing. The bot took advantage of this, leaning forward t try and shove him off balance further. It didn't take, as the machine was trying to apply pressure to his absorbing side. Saph replied with a revenge punch to the chest, the crowbar still clenched in his grasp.

He used a fair amount of his collected energy for it, so the officer slid back, barely keeping it's footing.

Saph took the opportunity to immediately start hitting himself in the right leg as hard as he could over and over again.

"c'moooon."

The kid was on the phone. Good! Was he making progress?

"Uhhhh.... 16247b. And it's... Assaulting a cop, right? You're a cop? Wait, I thought you were an X-man?"

"Oh for cristsake I'm honorary, okay? It's a real thing, google it for f#$%s sake!" The bot came at him again; he knew he didn't have enough energy to do any real damage yet. That meant he would have to brawl it out.

Thus began a series of intense exchanges; leg sweeps here, strikes and parries, Saph was tripped up once, and as he hit the ground he used a burst of energy to return to his feet immediately and deliver a blow to the knight's head, causing it to rock back.

He needed more force, though. Or that code. "See if they'll give you the override code!"

He... Wasn't a mutant?

Okay, this guy was really off his rocker. That was, however, not the thing he needed to focus on. He could get the guy some psychiatric help later on, when he wasn't faced with being punched by an angry robot.

Could robots get angry, or was that a purely human emotion? Did robots feel emotions? Was that programmed into their code? Maybe he could ask the robot trying to kill him if the X-dude managed to subdue him.

...Crap.

How many tangents had his mind run off into? Too many. He had missed the bulk of something that the guy was yelling to him, and a bunch of things the emergency person on the other end was saying. He caught a little bit about a code or something at the end, and he hoped he had heard enough.

"Sorry, could you repeat that, please? Thanks. That's pretty fast, eh? In my old town the first responders took way longer to get anywhere. Though, I guess there is a lot of crime in this city, so you guys probably have more people on staff and a lot more precincts. Anyway, could I get the override code, please? Mhmm, thanks."

He put the phone down against his shoulder and called over to the X-man. "They say that they can't give out the code over the phone, 'cause they don't know if you're actually a cop. They've had a bunch of prank calls recently, so they don't want to risk anything. When the legit cops arrive they should have like a handbook or something that tells them what to do."

Bailey frowned, finally processing what he had just relayed. They couldn't do anything else until the cops arrived. Well, at least it looked like the X-guy had things handled. 

This was a terrible time to go off on a tangent.

The bot had one arm, which made it pretty manageable for the experienced mutant, but it was built like a freaking brick house; putting a dent in it took a lot of force, and he didn't have a whole lot of energy stored up. The kid was getting somewhere with the cops, it sounded like.

"Sorry, could you repeat that, please? Thanks. That's pretty fast, eh? In my old town the first responders took way longer to get anywhere. Though, I guess there is a lot of crime in this city, so you guys probably have more people on staff and a lot more precincts. Anyway, could I get the override code, please? Mhmm, thanks."

"Lovely, take yer freakin time, kid!" He ducked a wide swing and caught a knee with his right hand; this thing knew how to fight. The swing had been a planned miss so that he would move into the next strike. If he wasn't an experienced fighter he would have been knocked out cold. He grabbed the knee and kicked the foot of the other leg, putting some precious force into it, and causing the bot to fall down. This gave him a second to turn and look at his apparent accomplice.


"They say that they can't give out the code over the phone, 'cause they don't know if you're actually a cop. They've had a bunch of prank calls recently, so they don't want to risk anything. When the legit cops arrive they should have like a handbook or something that tells them what to do."

Saph's expression darkened for a moment as the kid referred to the 'legit' cops over him. The META behind him was standing now. The beat up looking mutant almost seemed to radiate dangerously as he spun, grabbed the bot by the neck, and slammed it into the wall with all of the force he had gathered thus far.

He embedded it in the wall.

The Masochist paid no mind to the bot as he stepped toward the kid.

"Now you listen to me you little @$@^ I BLED for this @%$^ing city. I EARNED that badge. People DIED in the riots. I stood beside those 'legit' cops and we held that line TOGETHER." The broken knight was stirring, trying to remove itself from the wall with little success. Saph spun and embedded the crowbar in it's visor to finally silence it's struggling.

"@$#^ing bulls%#t..." The man grumbled as he removed the weapon.

Just then, the sound of two sets of rapidly approaching footsteps could be heard. The Cavalry had arrived.